Names That Mean Pearl
Across 4 pages
of 4
The names
Margot
French, diminutive of Margaret
"pearl"
Margot is suddenly a star again. After a nearly-half century absence, it hopped back on the Top 1000 list in 2013 and is on the rise. The Margot spelling is now given to three times as many baby…
Margaret
Greek
"pearl"
Margaret is derived from the French Marguerite, which in turn came from Margarita, the Latin form of the Greek Margarites. Margarites was based on the Old Persian word margārīta , meaning "pearl."…
Maisie
Scottish diminutive of Margaret, Mairead, or Mary, English, Latin, Hebrew
"pearl; bitter, beloved, drop of the seas"
Sweet and sparky, youthful yet long-established, this Scottish nickname for Margaret, Mairead, or Mary, entered the US Top 1000 back in 2014 and has been on the rise ever since, replacing the once…
Maggie
Diminutive of Margaret
"pearl"
Maggie is a cute, earthy short form that has been in style for several decades now, still sometimes used as an independent name by such parents as Jon Stewart. First used in Scotland, it got a large…
Mae
Diminutive of Mary or Margaret, Hebrew, Latin
"beloved, bitter, drop of the sea; pearl"
Mae, a sweet and springlike old-fashioned name, hadn't been on the national charts in forty years, but finally made it back in 2010. Mae is derived from May, the month name that was chosen for its…
Margo
French, diminutive of Margaret
"pearl"
Margo and Margot sound exactly the same, so why has the Margot spelling hopped back onto the Top 1000, outpacing Margo in numbers more than two to one? (Over 350 baby girls were named Margot in the…
Maisy
Scottish diminutive of Margaret
"pearl"
The Maisie spelling may be more widely used, but Maisy is perfectly proper and also makes the British Top 100. And as Maisy, she feels like a closer relative to Daisy, another Margaret diminutive.
Pearl
Latin gem name
"pearl"
Pearl, like Ruby, has begun to be polished up for a new generation of fashionable children after a century of jewelry box storage. The birthstone for the month of June, Pearl could also make a…
Megan
Welsh diminutive of Margaret
"pearl"
Megan originally evolved from Meg, which itself derived as a nickname for Margaret. Margaret ultimately comes from the Greek word margarites , meaning "pearl." Megan is no longer a common nickname…
Greta
German, diminutive of Margarethe
"pearl"
Greta is an Old World name long tied to the iconic Garbo, but now synonymous with environmental activism. In the early 2000s, Greta was showing signs of a comeback, along with other Old Hollywood…
Margery
Medieval variation of Margaret, Greek
"pearl"
An old royal name in England and Scotland that's also spelled Marjorie. Popular in the Middle Ages and Tudor period, it was revived at the end of the 19th century, peaked in 1921 and dropped off the…
Gretchen
German, diminutive of Margarethe
"pearl"
Like Greta, Gretchen is a German Margaret diminutive that has become an American quasi-classic, though not much used today, having dropped off the list in 2009. She was at her high point in the…
Madge
Diminutive of Margery or Margaret
"pearl"
A super diminutive nickname name, and sometime Madonna nickname – it was how the British tabloids referred to her when she moved to London in the 1990s, which she found annoying until then husband…
Lulu
Diminutive of Louise or Lucy, or Arabic
"pearl"
Lula has a firecracker personality, a singing and dancing extrovert. Interesting that Lulu was a Top 100 name when the Social Security list was born in 1880, but it's been sliding ever since and has…
Margarita
Spanish, Russian, Greek
"pearl, daisy"
Margarita is an international form of Margaret that shares its meaning of "pearl", but also directly translates to "daisy" in Spanish and Greek. Despite being widely associated with the alcoholic…
Peg
Diminutive of Margaret, Greek
"pearl"
Peg is a nostalgic turn-of-the-last-century nickname, sociable but slight. Like near-identical twin Peggy, Peg is in mothballs.
Meg
Diminutive of Margaret, Greek
"pearl"
Meg, perennially one of the Little Women, is a Margaret short form that manages to be neither quite in nor quite out of style. Meg is sleeker and more sophisticated than Maggie, more contemporary…
Jumana
Arabic
"silver pearl"
Rare and rhythmic.
Peggy
Diminutive of Margaret, Greek
"pearl"
Just when we had written off Peggy as the eternal perky, pug-nosed prom-queen she projected from the 1920s into the fifties, along came Mad Men , with intriguing mid-century characters with names…
Mago
Diminutive of Margaret, Greek
"pearl"
So many short forms of Margaret, from Peggy all the way through Maggie and Megan, are outdated now that Mago has value simply by being undiscovered. But still, not very appealing.